We missed out flight from Dusseldorf, Germany to Bologna Italy. After 3 or 4 hours trying to figure out our cheapest options...we decided rented a car intending to drive to italy. However, with no available cars with snow tires we couldn't drive that far South. Instead we headed for Munich germany... to catch a train to bologna there.

So we drove for 5-6 hours... BUT THEN we wound up in standstill traffic for 2.5 hours! and missed our train. Once in munich we camped out at a mcdonalds... walked aroun in the rain and fell alseep in the car for 5 hours overnight at the train station. Then we hopped on a couple of trains the next morning (7 hours total) and arrived in bologna. A day late for our lectures

"It was the Balbi family who built the Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale) between 1643 and 1655. Renovated by Carlo Fontana, it became the Royal Palace in 1825. It was the Royal Family of Savoia who used at the residence, but now it is owned by the state. It is from the simple garden that the elegant baroque architecture" -- Good old wiki...

Highlights---------------- Pebble mosaics involving cats at the royal palace- The stuffed deranged looks on the stuffed animals at the natural history museum.- Unsure if I was delighted by stuffed animals or horrified.

The Royal Palace---------------

VIDEO:

Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova---------------

- The ancient museum has some heating issues in the past.

The walking fish.

Tubed assortment of animals

they are lying to me... there is nothing here that is real.. this is just a giant paper mache shark from 1900s